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Welcome to "From Bitter Waters to Sweet"

As I walked the streets of my small midwest town praying for the people and the churches of the town, the words came to me, "Make bitter waters sweet."Those words made no sense at the time.Surely if those words actually came from God they weren't about me. I, the pastor's wife, had a life that other women in my church envied.Shortly after that, my life fell apart and the bitterness that lurked beneath the surface came to the top.But God did not leave me there. Just as He can make crooked paths straight, raise valleys, and lower mountains, so also could He make bitter waters sweet.This blog contains bits and pieces and large chunks of my ongoing journey from bitter waters to sweet.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Phariseeism and False Balance

Phariseeism involves off-balanced thinking. It is off-balanced from what God considers just.Here are a few Old Testament verses concerning false balances (scales that give false info) and false weights (weights that say they weigh a certain amount but actually weigh something different.)Leviticus 19:35 You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity. Leviticus 19:36'You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin; I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight. Proverbs 16:11 A just balance and scales belong to the LORD; All the weights of the bag are His concern. Proverbs 20:10 Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the LORD. Proverbs 20:23 Differing weights are an abomination to the LORD, And a false scale is not good.Micah 6:11"Can I justify wicked scales And a bag of deceptive weights?As you can see, God commands weights and measures to be true and just. And it is seen that those who uses false measures and have false balances, those weights and balances are not only undesirable, they are an abomination.Now, lets look at how the Pharisees applied a false balance to a certain woman. And see how utterly blind they were to their false weights and measures.John 8:3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court,4they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.5"Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?"Note: The Law of Moses commanded that anyone, male and female, caught in adultery should be stoned. There was only one conditions where one of the two offending parties, was not stoned. And it was the woman who was not stoned. Not the man. The man was ALWAYS stoned, in the case of adultery. There was just a chance that, out in the country, the woman was being raped, cried out and wasn't heard. In that case, they let the woman go.

But here, these Pharisees, using a false balance and false weights concerning the Law of Moses have turned the entire thing on it's head and as a way to punish wayward women while allowing wayward men to go their merry way and continue to be wayward. This is an abomination. And God's blessing is not on this. As He spoke through the Prophet Micah I quoted above, "Can I justify wicked scales and a bag of deceptive weights?"The answer, of course, is that He cannot. God is just and is not subject to the false balances of men. He is not subject to it, nor can He bless it. But often, those who hold to the false balances are unaware that their balances are not blessed. They fully believe that God blesses their false balances and faulty weights and teach that their balances are God's commands and God's parameters. But what they teach is an abomination. And the fruit of their teaching is producing injustice worse than against the woman caught in adultery.It is also producing abuse as witnessed by a blogger named Cindy. She does not use the terms, balance, weights, or measures. But she is witness the result of faulty teaching.

I appreciate Cindy's work among the abused as she walks among those suffering from the fallout of an off-balanced teaching.

The promoters of the Danver's Statement are as blind to their off-balance teaching as the Pharisees who threw the adulterous woman at the feet of Jesus. They do not know that they promote a false, off-balanced gospel that is no gospel at all, at least not the women and children that have been and are still being destroyed by it.It is well past time for Christians to call into account those who perpetuate this false gospel. It is one of the most dangerous heresies to ever trouble the church.